


All In Your Head

by thorhugs



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Movies), Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, Spider-Man (Comicverse), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-06
Updated: 2012-10-06
Packaged: 2017-11-15 18:19:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/530264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thorhugs/pseuds/thorhugs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor has been infected by the Carnage symbiote, by way of his brother. He struggles to gain control over it as it threatens to overwhelm him. Exhausted from days of internal struggle, he turns to Loki for help, but cannot remain unconscious.</p>
<p>In the world of dreams, Thor faces off against the monster as it throws his worst fears at him. Can he defeat the beast, or will he lose himself in the process?</p>
            </blockquote>





	All In Your Head

**Author's Note:**

> This is a small piece from a much larger RP plot. A lot of twists and turns, betrayals and uphevels have led to this point.
> 
> One important detail that is not included in this portion is how Thor became infected. Loki was infected first. When he lost control, it was up to Thor stop him. He was stabbed through the stomach for his efforts and infected in the process. 
> 
> So enjoy my giant pile of head canon in regards to how Thor would combat such a threat.

Thor clung to Loki’s shirt, one hand resting on the side of his neck. A gesture he used so often to show just how serious he he was, whether out of affection or aggression. But now it provided neither, only a means of comfort, of feeling the only thing anchoring him in the storm of his mind. But as he’d envisioned past battles, he felt that anchor slipping away. The real world fading from him.

He became aware of the fact that he no longer felt Loki against his chest, against his cheek. Instead he felt the familiar protection of Loki against his back. They were surrounded on all sides. Their enemy on foot and on horseback. Armed with every weapon conceived for battle. He knew this battle. He had told the story a thousand times. But these were not the dark-dwelling elves and all their allies. And their own allies were not present to help hold back the armies. Instead it was only Thor and Loki, facing an unending sea of seething red figures. Figures that seemed to shift and meld into one another. Gnashing teeth and whip-like tongues.

"Ready, brother?" Loki said, leaning back against against Thor.

It was then that Thor realized they were both missing more than their friends. Neither wore armor, clad only in their casual midgardian clothes. Teeshirts and jeans. He had his hammer and his bother his magic, but nothing else. Nothing to protect them from the unending forces before them.

Before Thor could respond, the enemy attacked, flooding over them. He swung hard with his hammer, but it was like striking a creature made of tar. It morphed and clung to the weapon. He pulled the hammer back, but the tendrils crept over the surface, reaching for his hand.

"LIGHTNING!" Came a cry from behind him. Two dozen versions of his brother sliced through the creatures as if they were nothing. The furthest away was calling to him, pointing to the sky.

But before he could call upon the heavens, a bride red blade emerged from Loki's chest. The clones flickered and vanished, leaving the creatures to flood closer to Thor.

"NO!" The thunderer cried out, giving up his fight. Not caring that the dark tendrils curled around his hand, he charged head-first into the seething mass of monsters. Spinning his hammer, he threw off all those who tried to reach him. But tendrils grew out of Loki's wound, faster than Thor could run. They engulfed him, dragging him down. Until nothing but another red monster with a head full of teeth stood before him. This one with all too familiar horns.

Thor let out a wordless roar of rage, clawing at the figure. But it just opened it's massive mouth, laughing at him. The more he tore at, he found there was nothing inside. Just more red and black tar. It sucked at his hands, making it harder to pull out each handful.

"Your precious brother is GONE!" The thing hissed in his face. "He is one of us! YOU WILL JOIN HIM!"

Tears blurred his vision, but Thor continued to tear at the creature. Ripping holes straight through it. But more and more of the tar stuck to his hands and arms. Dragging at him with each pass. The holes closed faster than he could dig at them. But he didn't stop. He couldn't. He was screaming, tears streaming down his cheeks. He wouldn't let go of this! He couldn't!

But his arms were stuck fast, up to the elbows inside the creature that had taken his brother's place. Thor strained against the monster, kicking and thrashing. But it may as well have been made of cement for all he could move. A storm raged above, but he was powerless to call the fury down upon them. "I WILL NOT LET YOU HAVE HIM!"

"He is already lost!" The thing cackled. It wrapped a long-fingered hand over Thor's face, over his mouth. His cries were muffled as the thing spread to cover him. He tried to pull away, tried to stop the spread. But his feet were stuck fast as his arms and he could do nothing. He squeezed his eyes shut.

Unable to speak, he focused on the only words he wished he could voice.

_Forgive me, brother._

How much time passed, he could not say. But slowly, he became aware of the world again. He ached. Not the pleasant soreness that usually followed a trying battle. But a bone-weary ache unlike anything he'd ever felt.

With great effort, he pried his eyes open. There were deep shadows before him, which his eyes could not penetrate. Light from above illuminated the stone floor, but little else. The stones were were smeared and puddled with blood. His blood?

He could not assess himself fully. His arms wound not move. They were held in tarnished shackles. It was then that he became aware of the cause of his weariness. The chains bore his weight, keeping him on his feet between two massive pillars. Blood seeped from various wounds over his bare chest, trickling to the floor beneath him.

No, it wasn't quite blood. It was red, yes. But it moved of its own will. Slithering among the cracks, trying to escape.

He lifted his head, trying to ask after his captor. But his voice was denied him. A familiar mask hugged his lower face, a bit forced between his teeth. He shook his head, but he knew it was useless. Just as with the shackles, only another Asgardian could remove it.

He sagged against the chains. He'd done this to his brother. It was only fitting it should be his fate, in the end.

The light glinted off something in the shadows. Something gold. It moved, coming closer. A familiar, pronged shape. Loki, in his full armor. Gripping the staff he'd used while commanding his army.

The younger brother reached up to run his finger over one of the bleeding wounds. "Not enough..." Grabbing a handful of Thor's hair, he forced his brother to look at him. "You're pathetic..." He hissed. "Always have been. You have to rely on ME to do this for you. Incapable of doing it yourself."

Thor tried to protest, tried to tell Loki he was wrong. But he could barely managed the slightest of sounds. And as he tried to shake his head, his brother tightened his grip.

Loki pressed the tip of the scepter to Thor's chest, drawing another line of blood. The dark haired brother watched it flow from the wound, with little interest. "We must escalate."

With all the strength he had left, Thor tried to protest. Straining against the chains. Kicking at Loki. Crying out. But everything proved futile, achieving nothing more than the rattling of chains and a few pathetic whimpers. It used up with strength he had left. He looked to Loki, pleading to be released.

'Brother, whatever I have done to wrong you, whatever I have done to lead you to do this, I am truly sorry!'

The words rang through him with such intensity, he swore he heard them echo through the cavernous room as well. But Loki seemed unmoved, if he heard them at all. With one hand on Thor's shoulder, he readied his staff. "This is the only way," he said with a sneer, before slamming the blade into his brother's stomach.

Thor looked up, to see nothing but hatred in his brother's eyes. "Weak...."

_I cannot do this without you..._

He was in strange city which he had never seen. He had been back to Asgard, but Loki had not gone with him. But now they were to be reunited. How long had passed since they'd last seen each other, he could not say.

"Thor."

"Loki?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I had heard you were here and wished to see you. Am I not allowed to visit my brother?"

"I suppose you are. How are things in Asgard?"

"That does not matter. None if it matters if you are not there. I have missed you, brother."

"Why would you miss me? You’re better off without me."

"A thousand years I spent with you at my side. Without out you…it is not the same."

"All those things are in the past, Thor… How am I supposed to forget all that happened?"

"I do not ask you to forget. But you must also remember all that came before. With all that has happened, THAT has not changed. You are still my brother."

"I’m a frost giant, Thor. I’m a monster. Everything we lived back then was a lie for me, can’t you see it? I’m not your brother."

"Neither of us knew! But it does not matter. You have saved my life in battle more times than I can count. And I yours. That means more than any parentage, and ties of blood. You are my brother. Nothing can change that."

_Why won't you let me reach you?_

He was hanging over the edge of the fractured Bifrost. He held Loki by the wrist, stopping him from falling into the abyss. "I've got you!" He called to his terrified brother.

But it was not the fall which terrified Loki. He stared passed his brother at something on the bridge. A dark mass that gripped Thor. That slowly crept up the lower portion of his body. Tendrils creeping along his arm.

Loki clawed frantically at Thor's hand, kicking and jerking. "LET ME GO!" he cried.

But Thor gripped harder, desperate to keep his brother from that fatal fall.

He wasn't strong enough. Loki pried the fingers from his wrist, slipping free just before the shadow spread across Thor's hand.

"LOKI, NO!"

It was too late. Loki drifted down, disappearing among the stars.

_Why won't you let me save you?_

He stood on a bloodied battle field. Around him, an army lay dead and dying, stretching as far as the eye could see. But he was alone. No other could be seen standing among the fallen.

Movement caught his eye. A flash of gold in the shadow of a massive tree.

Loki.

Thor rushed to his brother's side, dropping to his knees, his hammer falling uselessly to the grass. "No, Loki! I won't allow you to die. Not here!"

He frantically stripped away the armor, trying to get to the wounds. He was no healer, but he had to do something. A frail hand came to rest on his, stopping him. "...too late..." Loki choked out, blood staining his lips.

"NO!" Thor cried out, his eyes stinging with tears. "We've won! I can't lose you!"

Loki grit his teeth with a wince of pain, his fingers tightening on Thor's hand. "...remember, you..." But the words faded with the light in his eyes.

Gripping Loki's shoulders, Thor roared with raw and unbridled rage. As though the sheer force of it could revive his brother. But such anger quickly burned out and gave way to rough sobs.

As the heat of his anger faded, he became aware of how bitterly cold the air felt. Not the icy chill of Jotunheim. He looked at the tree under which Loki had fallen. It was not merely large. The trunk was so massive, he could not see around it. It towered above until the seemed to merge with the stars above.

"Niflheim..." he breathed aloud.

He rose to his feet, slowly. He needed to leave. But when he turned, he found the battlefield was no longer littered with corpses. They had risen and now raised their weapons to challenge him. But they were mere shadows. Streaked red and black.

His hammer was in his hand. Fury flooded through him once more. He would not allow them to have his brother!

He smashed through them with more rage than he'd ever felt. Bringing down droves with each strike. Lightning struck with each blow of his hammer. Tearing the forces apart. He never strayed far from his brother's body, destroying everything that came near. The fallen shadows piled higher and higher, until they blotted out all light.

_I have no choice. I must save you._

He was on the Bifrost again. Loki stood at the ragged edge, speaking quietly to himself. Staring down into the darkness below. "I could have done it, father...For you. For all of us..."

Without thinking, Thor rushed forward. Loki stepped forward, over the broken edge. But this time, Thor managed to grab his arm. "No, Loki!" He said, softly. "Not like this." Before Loki could speak, before he could fight, Thor pulled him back from the edge, clutching him close to his chest. "I will not let you fall."

"You must let me go," Loki said, his voice calm. "This is not my fight."

Thor could feel his tears dampening his brother's hair as he shook his head. "I am not strong enough to do this without you!"

"What am I?"

"Don't do this!"

"Tell me," Loki urged softly. He removed himself from Thor's embrace, turning to face him.

"My brother."

"No," Loki said, reaching up to touch the side of Thor's face. "I am not your brother. I never was."

"Your pare--"

Loki pressed a finger to Thor's lips, shaking his head. "No." He took each of Thor's hands in his. "I am a dream, Thor." He entwined their fingers, gripping his hands tight. "A memory of what your brother once was. What you wish your brother to be."

Thor closed his eyes and nodded. He understood. He tightened his grasp at first, wanting to hold on to the memory for a little longer. But shadows had started to gather around the edges of the bridge. This time, he was ready. Slowly, he uncurled his fingers. And as he did, the figure of his brother started to break apart. Fading into pinpoints of light. And when he lowered his hands, they faded. Not into the darkness, but into him. Returning the strength he needed.

He stood fast, facing the shadows. Let them come. He was ready.

_There is always hope._

Slowly, Thor opened his eyes. Daylight streamed through the wall of windows. This wasn't his room. He sat up, startled, his head foggy.

Loki sat on the floor, dozing with his head on the edge of the bed.

He leaned over, resting a hand on Loki's arm. "...thank you..." was all he could manage to say, barely louder than a breath.


End file.
